It was never about Donald Trump's tax returns. Or Mitt Romney's. For the Left, it's ALWAYS about the attack.
Since well before the days of Saul Alinsky, their political strategy has not been to produce better candidates or policies. They’re incapable of that. It’s about the destruction of their opposition. In Rules for Radicals, Alinsky advised his acolytes to go after people, not institutions, and to pick their target,freezeit, personalize it, and polarize it. He believed that that’s the way to win in politics.
And to the Left, everything is political.
The best way of defending is to never stop attacking. And since the Left's candidates and arguments are indefensible, they try to never have to defend them. That's always what the tax returns were about, what Romney's supposed heartless behaviors throughout his life were about, what the ‘controversy’ regarding Alicia Machado is about. And Republicans never seem to learn.
The only one who regularly fights back and returns offense with offense is Donald Trump. It's why the attacks on him don’t work and it's why he's winning. He’s rarely back on his heels. The Leftist media can’t understand why he hasn’t been knocked out of the ring. It’s amusing that they don’t seem to recognize their own tactics.
If Trump doesn't change this strategy, he will win the presidency – in a landslide.
Americans love a fighter, someone who doesn’t back down. The reason the Left remains viable despite having policies that fail every time their tried is that they always stay on offense.
Remember Bill’s famous line, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman?” The only reason Monica Lewinsky did not find herself on the trailer trash heap was a stain on her dress. If not for that unseemly spot, the current Democrat nominee would have portrayed her as a stalker and would have destroyed her.
Perhaps the most renowned Leftist archetype for never admitting the truth, never going on defense, is Alger Hiss, a remarkable historical example, today unknown to most. The Left's ability to rewrite history, perfected in the Stalinist days of the old Soviet Union, has driven us not to remember that despicable Soviet spy, but a patriotic (albeit flawed) individual named Joseph McCarthy. Hiss is among the worst villains of history. But the Left has poisoned the past so that the name McCarthy is not only vilified, but has become a pejorative.
Hiss, along with a group of fellow traitors, thoroughly compromised the FDR administration in the 1930s and ‘40s. Only the heroism of one valiant American, Whittaker Chambers, has allowed us to know the truth about that episode in American history. But Hiss went to his grave at the age of 92 always denying, always on offense, even after being convicted of perjury (and that only because treason has a statute of limitations).
And their tactics have never changed. The Veep debate gives us more recent examples. Mike Pence said that Hillary used “a broad brush to accuse cops of institutional racism.” Tim Kaine came back with, “I can’t believe you’re defending the position that there’s no bias,” a position which exactly nobody takes, but a great way to go on the offensive. Kaine also falsely attributed to Trump the assertion that most undocumented Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals (a charge which more properly fits the husband of the Dem nominee).
The appropriate response to the tax return request is to say that when we have every document from the Clinton Foundation, a complete and accurate record of Obama's college career, and Bill Clinton's entire medical history, then maybe we can talk. See the difference?
Republicans will win simply by keeping a consistent offense. Giving in in any respect to the Leftist lowlifes will keep us backpedaling. And once there's blood in the water, the sharks - AKA the dominant media - will gather. The extra value in a tax return, or almost any document for that matter, is that it's a gift that keeps on giving. Every line can become the subject of scrutiny. NEVER give them that opportunity. Nice guys finish last. Round-heeled Republicans (think never-Trumpers) should remember this when The Donald is plowing full speed ahead. The sports analogy also applies to politics: the time you get points is when you’re on offense.
And politics is war by other means. In this war, we have the ammunition. Our future depends on using it.